The thread used in traditional Hunan embroidery is very distinctive. Silk thread is lighter than pod seed solution and then wrapped with bamboo paper to make velvet smooth, not easy to pilling and convenient for embroidery operation. There are also knitting threads, each thread has a depth change, and it has a natural blooming effect after embroidery. The broken silk technology of Xiang embroidery is extremely fine, so it surpasses the "hair embroidery" in Gu embroidery. This extremely fine embroidery is commonly known as "fine wool embroidery" in Hunan. The stitch technique of Xiang embroidery is developed by drawing lessons from a set of stitches of Su embroidery, which is characterized by mixed stitches. Mixed needles are commonly known as "disorderly needle insertion", and the mixed needle system is subdivided into many kinds, such as mixed needles, mixed needles, straight needles, etc., as well as various needle methods unique to Xiang embroidery, such as turning needles and covering needles.
Xiang embroidery is the general name of Xiang embroidery products with distinctive cultural characteristics of Hunan and Chu, with Changsha as the center. It is a folk craft with the cultural characteristics of Hunan and Chu, which was carefully created by the industrious and intelligent Hunan people in the long history of human civilization. Its history can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period more than 2,000 years ago. According to records, from 65438 to 0958, the exquisite patterns of dragon and phoenix embroidery and the exquisite stitches of embroidery workers found in Chu tombs in Changsha have long been lamented by the world. 1972, forty pieces of embroidered clothes were unearthed in Mawangdui Western Han tombs in Changsha, indicating that Hunan local embroidery, that is, Xiang embroidery, had developed to a higher level in the Western Han Dynasty more than 2 100 years ago.
"The splendid chu xiu and Mawangdui Han embroidery is not only a proud chapter in the history of Chinese embroidery, but also the logical source of the initial development of Xiang embroidery." In the long history of craft culture, the above argument is correct from the analysis of the deep cultural connotation of embroidery technology. It is undoubtedly of positive significance to explore the relationship between the past and the future of Xiang embroidery, a widely influential embroidery variety formed under specific historical conditions. In addition, on the basis of Hunan folk embroidery, Xiang embroidery also absorbed the advantages of embroidery departments such as Suzhou embroidery, Guangdong embroidery and Beijing embroidery, and developed into a rising star in the embroidery art garden of Qing Dynasty.
Xiang embroidery is based on Hunan folk embroidery. People in Hunan can embroider very early. During Jiaqing period of Qing Dynasty, there were many women engaged in embroidery in Changsha County. In the 24th year of Guangxu (1898), Wu, the son of an outstanding embroiderer Hu Lianxian, opened the first "Wu Caixia Embroidery Workshop" in Changsha. His works are excellent and spread all over the country, and Xiang embroidery is famous all over the country. During Guangxu period of Qing Dynasty, Yang Shizhuo, a Ningxiang painter, advocated Hunan folk embroidery, went deep into embroidery workshops for a long time, drew embroidery drafts and created various stitches, which improved the artistic level of Hunan embroidery. At the end of Guangxu, Hunan folk embroidery developed into a unique embroidery process system and became a handicraft commodity with independent style and strong local color. At this time, a special title "Xiang embroidery" came into being. Since then, Xiang embroidery has been continuously improved in skills and has become a world-renowned embroidery product. In 1930s, the output value of Xiang embroidery was as high as 800,000 silver dollars, and it was exported to 1/3 products. In 1935, Hunan embroidery accounts for half of the total coverage of West Lake Expo. In the decades after liberation, Xiang embroidery has made great progress, standing proudly among the "four famous embroideries" with its unique style and superb embroidery skills, and becoming an "artistic business card" in Hunan and even the whole country. Xiang embroidery exports up to 5 million dollars a year.
After entering the19th century, with the development of commodity economy of Xiang embroidery, Xiang embroidery absorbed many artistic essences such as painting, embroidery, poetry, calligraphy and epigraphy. In the ancient culture of China, through the continuous exploration of many embroidery artists and the dedication of a large number of outstanding China painters, dozens of stitches and embroidery lines with various color levels based on Chinese painting have been formed, giving full play to the expressive force of stitches on various substrates and depicting the internal characteristics of objects in detail.
According to records, Xiang embroidery originated from the making of clothes, wallets and tobacco bags used by rural women for decoration. Later, some painters participated in the design of Xiang embroidery and transplanted some techniques of China into embroidery, thus gradually forming the unique style of Xiang embroidery. Embroidery workshops appeared in Changsha in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. After the Revolution of 1911, embroidery villages of all sizes were opened one after another.
As outstanding representatives of Huxiang culture, Xiang embroidery, beachhead woodblock New Year pictures and Hunan shadow play are all listed in the national intangible cultural heritage protection list of China. Xiang Xiu, Hunan Province became the first national intangible cultural heritage protection research base officially awarded by China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and China People's Association.